Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich. This isn't going to work. The problem isn't with "taxing the job creators", but with the fact that the rich are extremely good at not paying taxes. They will evade them.

This is why I propose a simpler system: a "single payer system" The name is slightly misleading, as there may be multiple players, but the goal is to keep down the total number of payers.

Here's how it works:

All federal taxes are abolished, everything from tariffs to social security taxes. In their place is the single-payer system. Under this system, near the end of the fiscal year Congress adds up how much it has spent, plus 10% to account for them being terrible at math, and then seeks to get revenues to cover it.

The revenue-gathering process is a two-step process. First step, all people in the world with incomes greater than $1 million, or USD equivalent annually or assets greater than $50 million, with corporations counted as people, are placed into an ordered list. Second step, IRS agents go down the list, taking whatever they feel like, until the spending has been paid off. In some cases, a "one point five" step may be needed: auctioning off assets which are too hard to liquidate on current markets, such as houses, cars, and the rights to ghost-write the autobiographies of taxpayers.

The FBI and CIA would be removed from the Department of Homeland Security and placed under the control of the IRS, because we're going to need a lot of intel and covert-ops capability.

The income and asset thresholds would be linked to inflation, so they will slowly rise over time.

Take note of the many benefits over the current system.- Impossible to evade: Even if you try to hide assets the IRS will just take them anyway.- Simplifies taxes: You never need to fill out a federal tax form ever again.- Ensures a balanced budget: Revenues automatically rise to meet spending.- Removes the market-distorting effects of variable taxation: capital gains, salaries, wages, and side benefits can all be confiscated equally.- Finally validates Ron Paul's desk sign: "Don't steal, the IRS hates competition."- Is unlikely to take my money, or yours, or that of anyone you know.- High likelihood of taking more money from foreigner citizens than from Americans, which is like taking money from people who don't know, but even more patriotic.

Due to no longer being "internal" to the United States, the IRS would be renamed the Revenue Service.

The only possible downsides come from the Foreign Revenue Service division, which might violate international law, but with an automatically balancing budget, we will be able to afford whatever military expenditures are needed to fix this problem.

P.S. Confession: I'd meant to finish part 2 of what would get me to play WoW again, but I somehow got distracted by my education. So I hope you like tax policy. Maybe tomorrow I will have it ready. It would be easier if I just stuck to simple, worthless claims, such as "remove all the dumbing down", which is obviously completely nonsensical and imprecise.

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I initially read that as "Single-Player Tax System", and thought that it was about the new radical solution to the Subscription vs. F2P dilemma. Collect an additional toll from every single player game sold worldwide, and use the money to make all MMORPGs completely and totally free.

It's a nice idea but who would run it? The UN? The IMF? And how would you enforce it on countries that didn't want to opt in? Military force?

I think a simpler method is to tax at source. So if you want to tax someone 50% on a salary of $1m they only ever see $500K. So if someone is domiciled abroad it wouldn't help them, in fact they might get taxed on their 500K over there too but hey, tough shit.

I'd address the issue of allowances and exemptions by scrapping the lot and using a subsidy system instead. For example say there's a tax break for disabled people to buy wheelchairs. Instead have them pay full price but subsidise the purchase of wheelchairs for personal use.

Simplify tax, no allowances, no evasion no avoidance. If you receive money the person paying you sends some to you some to the government (or you both risk going to jail for fraud).